YOUR GUIDE ON TRUTHFULNESS
Mahatma Gandhi based his life on two fundamental principles, satya and ahimsa— unconditional adherence to the truth, and unreserved practice of nonviolence in thought, speech, and deed.
One day a journalist remarked to Gandhi that in some cases telling the truth could actually cause harm to others. Gandhi asked for an example. The journalist then related a carefully crafted spiritual dilemma for the Mahatma to solve: "A monk was sitting peacefully at a crossroad. A noise attracted his attention and, as he looked up, a wounded deer galloped past and took one of the roads leading away from the intersection. A few minutes after the deer had disappeared a hunter came to where the monk was still sitting. He cast about him but
couldn't determine which way the beast had fled, so he asked the monk if he could point him in the right direction."
Gandhi smiled for he knew the dilemma the monk was facing.
The journalist continued, "If the monk answered `yes', he was compromising his vow of ahimsa, because he would become the material cause of the deer's death. But if he said `no', he was compromising satya by resorting to lying."
Looking the Mahatma straight in the eye, the journalist asked the crucial question. "Gandhiji, what should the monk answer?"
"Let me answer your clever scenario by a story. It comes from one of the scriptures composed by Sage Vyasa, the Devi Bhagavata."
Mahatma Gandhi fixed his gaze in a distant horizon and started.
"Sage Satyavrata had taken the vow of always saying the truth—hence his name ("Vow of Truth"). One day he saw, running towards him, a pig that had been struck by an arrow. It stopped, looked about it and then hid in the bushes nearby. Soon a fierce-looking hunter came and asked Satyavrata whether he had seen a pig wounded by an arrow. Satyavrata gave an answer which saved the pig, dharma, and possibly his own life."
What was it?
Mahatma Gandhi explained, "Very calmly, Sage Satyavrata said, `My eyes have seen but they cannot speak. My mouth can speak but it cannot see. Please leave me alone, O hunter, and go your way.'
The hunter was so impressed by the courage of this answer that he begged apology and left."
Turning to the journalist, Mahatma Gandhi concluded, "Most importantly, know that if anybody asks a question, one is never obliged to give an answer."
This is a key point to remember: no one is ever required to tell everything, or to answer every question, if it might cause harm to the innocent. In other words, non-injury must always supersede truth-telling. This is the golden rule found in many different guises in all religions: "Do no harm".
A story from the Puranas confirms this principle. A very respected sage had once blindly adhered to telling the truth, thereby causing the death of hundreds of innocent people. When he died years later, despite his vehement protests that he was a man who had always defended the truth, he was taken to hell.
The angel of Death warned him, "By making truth a blind principle, you walked away from the path of compassion, and this is what lead you here."
